“It really don’t matter how i put my words together, as long as you know what I am sayin’. If it can be read allowed in the same way that i would say it. No big deal. Its sorta like talking on a piece of paper right? Too think I should be graded on how … Continue reading A Case for More Grammar Instruction in Schools (And Less Standardized Testing)

The GOP-led NC legislature’s 2013 decision to end graduate degree pay bumps for new teachers entering the teaching profession was not only misguided, but another wave in the assault on public education here in the Old North State. If the North Carolina General Assembly thinks that abolishing the graduate degree pay increases for teachers is … Continue reading North Carolina Should Restore Graduate Degree Pay For Teachers

Just remember who has been in power in the NC General Assembly for the last 15+ years. From Carolina Forward: When the current session of the NC General Assembly convened in April of this year, it was almost immediately publicized that a "framework" of a new budget that is way overdue had been agreed upon. … Continue reading “We’re nowhere close to being finished.” Concerning NC’s State Budget

...one by one. Sometimes a digit at a time. From the Associated Press: President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday accelerated its dismantling of the Education Department, delegating much of its work to protect the nation’s at-risk students. The Department of Justice will take on enforcement of civil rights in education, while the Department of Health and … Continue reading They’re Not Eliminating The Department of Education; They’re Amputating Its Limbs…

...the relationships that are fractured in schools as well as communities and the hemorrhaging of the leadership pipeline in our schools. From the Learning Policy Institute: That site also includes a tool to calculate the cost of repacing a teacher. And we do have a lot of vacancies. This is just for classroom teachers (not … Continue reading The Cost Of Replacing A Teacher? About 25K And That Doesn’t Include…

It's called HB1130. It does a lot of things that might help retain teachers in North Carolina. That NC Newsline story linked above also mentions the current Republican lawmakers' proposals to raise teacher pay. “As best we can tell, (this is) the largest average teacher pay increase at least since 2006, and one of the … Continue reading This NC Veteran Teacher Likes This Teacher Pay Bill

And it's deliberate. While we are about to enter the 26-27 school year, we are still running on budget that was made in 2023. Yet,

Suggestion #1 on how to make immediate improvements for WSFCS this coming year can be found here. Here's Suggestion #2: do not allow courses taken at the local community college have influence on the transcript at the home high school. No, I am not saying that we should keep students from taking dual-enrollment courses. What … Continue reading Stop Allowing Dual Enrollment To Affect High School GPA/QPAs (Suggestion #2)

In what might have been the toughest year to be a teacher in WSFCS (including the pandemic), a few days away from the classroom can offer some time to reflect and try and understand what made this school year so hard. Yes, the budget debacle is still front and center and the county commsion's refusal … Continue reading We Need To Revisit The Code of Conduct (Suggestion #1)

On the same day that parents like myself who have children with special needs receive this request: ... the WSFCS Board of Education did this: